Ngee Ann Polytechnic is aware of a former student’s accusations against the same lecturer who has been suspended over investigations he insulted an interracial couple.
Ngee Ann Polytechnic lecturer in viral racist outburst accused of spreading Islamophobia
The school said in a statement last night that it has reached out to Nurul Fatimah Binti Iskandar Muda Abdul Jalil, who alleged on Wednesday that engineering lecturer Tan Boon Lee once questioned Islamic beliefs during class in 2017, and that her complaints about him to the school went unheard. The polytechnic said that it was looking into the matter and would not hesitate to take action against Tan, including terminating him.
“We are aware of allegations surfaced by our alumnus on social media against the lecturer who inappropriately discussed religion in class in 2017,” its statement said.
“The lecturer in question has been suspended from his duties. We are investigating the matter and will not hesitate to take disciplinary action, including dismissal if appropriate,” it added. The school also urged others with similar experiences to come forward.
Nurul Fatimah had on Wednesday wrote in a series of social media posts about Tan starting a “full-on discourse about Islam” during a programming lecture in July of 2017, even likening Allah (God in Arabic) to a father figure and alluding to Islam not being a real religion.
According to the former engineering student, Tan had said, “What type of father tells [you] to worship him 5 times a day and threatens to send [you] to hell if you don’t?” and “Only animals will treat their children like how Allah does to his people […] We need to be smart enough to identify if the religion we follow is fake or not.”
She has not responded to Coconuts’ queries since yesterday.
Both the police and Ngee Ann Polytechnic were also investigating Tan for allegedly confronting a Filipino-Indian Singaporean man and a Thai-Chinese woman about their interracial relationship, which was something Tan did not seem to approve of. The incident was captured in a video that has since gone viral and reignited yet another debate on racism in Singapore.
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